Thursday, December 10, 2009

extubation day!

Not the best picture in the world, but he's sporting the nasal cannula now instead of the huge ventilator tubes shoved down his throat. He was pretty mad after they extubated, so they've kept him pretty sedated today. Today was the first day in his life that he has laid on his tummy like this. As much as I just wanted to pick him up and snuggle, we aren't really allowed to stimulate him too much, even with touch. Doesn't he look so big in the below picture? He's just over eight pounds these days.

We had our care conference with our NICU doctor, our nurse practitioner, our nurse, someone from genetics, the social worker, and cardiology. We talked about Chi's current situation and what things still need to be addressed. The biggest thing for this hospitalization will be figuring out his heart rhythm (which doesn't seem to hold to the same rate or rhythm for longer than five minutes at a time when he isn't sedated). If the trigger of his rhythm can be pinpointed, then meds can be adjusted appropriately. At this time, it seems as if he will be on meds to keep his heart rate low (to avoid the episodes of supraventricular tachycardia with rates in the 270-300 range) and then a pacemaker implantation to tackle the episodes of extreme bradycardia caused by the meds to jolt the heart back on track. We are still going to just be addressing things one at a time as they arise, but the heart arrhythmia is the most pressing matter. Pray for Chi's heart!

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